Obama Plays His Cards, Commutes Chelsea Manning’s Sentence

Today, as one of his final act as Commander and Chief, with less than 48 hours to go, President Obama largely commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning.

Manning, was the army intelligence analyst convicted of the enormous 2010 WikiLeak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities. This MADE WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures, famous. WikiLeaks is now the most infamous source for international news leaks of classified information.

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The information that Manning gave to the public exposed the unjust detainment of innocent people at Guantanamo Bay, revealed the true human cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and changed journalism forever.

After a prosecution showcased this information, whistleblower and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Army Private Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley), was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The news comes at the dismay of the intelligence community and the Pentagon, but the White House was well aware of how they would respond to this decision. Part of the thinking was that Manning's term was quite "extreme" and "without historical precedent," says a White House source. Manning had already served more than six years and adding to the complexity of this issue was the personal and emotional side of the Manning story: she is transgender, in a male prison, "facing an uncertain fate behind bars."